Monday, December 8, 2014

As
you are all putting on your winter coats and getting cozy by the fire we are
sweating our butts off over here.It
always makes me laugh when we go to town or just to our local market and there
is a bunch of Christmas decorations, it just does not seem right when the
temperature is pushing 100 degrees here in Botswana.Just as Americans get ready for the holidays,
the Batswana are winding things down in preparation of going home for the
holidays as well.Most people will take
some of their “leave days” during this time of year and return to their home
villages to spend time with their loved ones, just like we do back home.The difference is that they get way more
leave time than we do.My supervisor
will be out of the office from December 10th – January 15th,
and that is very typical.With that
being said, very little is done in the way of work during this time.Kids are out of school and most government
workers are gone.We are no different
and will be spending the holidays with our African family again this year in
Serowe.We are really looking forward to
it as we always have so much fun with them.We are also hoping to get away and do a bit of camping for New
Years.

It
feels like it has been quite a while since we wrote so I will give an update on
what we have been up to.After my
parents left we were around the village for a few weeks leading up to our MST
(Mid Service Training) which was held in Gaborone for a few days.Immediately after MST we had our yearly
medical appointments (physical and dental cleaning), yes they take very good
care of us over here, no worries.Some
amazing news is that I got a high enough score on my Language Proficiency Test
(not quite sure how) that I was able to use my score to satisfy the language
requirement for my Master’s Degree.I am
officially an Advanced Low Setswana speaker.I can’t express in words the weight that has been lifted off my
back.Also I am officially registered
for the 1st of my 3 off-campus semesters that I need for my
practicum.I will be starting to work on
my capstone requirement in early 2015, and graduating in December 2015 right
after our COS (Close of Service) in October.I have to say that even though it seems daunting at times, I am actually
looking forward to the mental stimulation of research and writing.

After
we got back to the village from MST, we started gearing up for the upcoming 16
Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence activities that we were
participating in.16 Days of Activism Against
Gender Based Violence is an International event which is held every year for
the 16 days that fall between InternationalDay for the Elimination of Violence on
Nov 16 and International Human Rights Day on December 10th.Peace Corps Volunteers as well as NGO’s,
governments, and individuals across the world use these two weeks to hold
events which sensitize communities to the issues of Gender Based Violence and
how they affect poverty, HIV/AIDS, etc.In my opinion empowering women is one of the most important things we
can be involved in here in Botswana, and working with our local counterparts on
the various activities we participated in for 16 Days has been a powerful and
important experience.

Peace
Corps does their best to try and support volunteers on the ground by supplying
them with materials.This year they were
able to order 20,000 purple ribbons with a pledge message that were distributed
to interested volunteers in their villages.Erin and I were given 1,000 ribbons to distribute in our village, and
let me tell you we could have given out 10,000.People love them, which is great, because the whole point of wearing the
ribbon is to raise awareness and start conversations about GBV (Gender Based
Violence).We have been wearing our
ribbons and will continue to wear them for the whole 16 Days.

I’ll
give you a quick recap of the events we have been involved in thus far.First, Erin and I were invited to help
facilitate a 2 day Sensitization Workshop in Francistown with another Peace
Corps Volunteer.The workshop was held
at a hotel and the participants were various Dikgosi (chiefs) and Police
representatives from Francistown.At
this point Erin and I have facilitated quite a few different sessions about GBV
in many different settings, and are pretty comfortable doing so.This one however was different and a little
intimidating.It’s just kind of a touchy
thing when dealing with very respected members of the community such as Chiefs
(no one is more respected) and Police.We
are guests in the country and don’t want to be disrespectful, especially when
dealing with subject matter where men in particular can feel as though they are
being attacked.With that said, we still
feel that GBV is something that needs to be talked about openly and honestly
and thus even though some conversations can go down difficult roads they are
still very important.There is no way I
can express in words the complexity of this subject in the context of a
developing African nation.I will
remember things I’ve heard in these types of sessions for the rest of my
life.Let’s just say there is a lot of
room for improvement when it comes to the overall treatment of women and
children and theopportunities which are
available to them in this part of the world. It is a very fine line between
what is wonderful and unique about different cultures across the world, and the
cultural norms which can sometimes lead to negative outcomes for certain
individuals within a society (usually women and children).

Secondly,
I had spent months working with my organization (Tonota Society for Gender and
Human Rights) planning a commemorative event here in Tonota for 16 Days.We had secured a great guest speaker, a women
name Mma Mosojane.She was a Kgosi
(chief) in Francistown and an activist who is very respected in the
community.Beyond that our program
consisted of speeches from the Tonota Kgosi, Gender Based Violence survivor,
the Police, and youth from the community.Being in the event business for many years, it was a lesson in patience
trying to organize this event.Let’s
just say that things are done very different here but like most things in
Botswana somehow, someway things have a way of working themselves out.The day began at 6:00am at our Bus Rank
(station) where we had a group of volunteers participate in a March.We walked to the Main Kgotla (community meeting
place where tribal court and community events are held) about 6K with banners,
ribbons and posters.We even had a
police escort leading the way.Our
program began around 8:00am and to our surprise, we had well over 100 people
show up.Everything did not work out as
planned but none of that mattered in the end.

It was a very successful event and everyone was very proud to be a part
of it.The highlight for Erin and I was
getting to invite one of the PACT groups (Peer
Approach to Counselling by Teens, a program that empowers teens to make
informed decisions about important issues in their lives) that
we work with at one of the schools.Youth do not often participate in these types of events and it was
inspiring when the girls pulled me aside and asked if they could have a chance
to address the crowd.We made room in
the program for them and when it was their time, this girl around 15 years old
got up in front of the Kgotla (Chiefs, Councilors, Community members, Elders
etc.) and gave them a piece of her mind.It was one of the greatest moments of my Peace Corps service. I love that we were able to give the youth a
voice.Overall the event was a huge
success and it was really satisfying for Erin and I to see it all come
together.Sometimes it is hard to
measure our accomplishments over here and it was nice to see so many people
positively affected.

Lastly,
we traveled to Masunga for the Botswana national commemoration event for World
AIDS Day which is held in different villages every year on December 1st.We had previously attended the World AIDS Day
commemoration for our sub-district in a very small village called Shashe
Mooke.As virtually every person in this
country is affected by HIV in some way, there are many different commemorations
across the nation.Our friend Sarah who
lives in Masunga was obviously very involved in the national event, and we went
up to help her out and participate.The
President of Botswana His Excellency Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama
(yes that is his full title) was there to give a speech along with other dignitaries
and guests.In a country so vastly
affected by HIV/AIDS it was a powerful event to say the least.

Overall
the 16 Days has thus far been a great experience and we really believe this
type of work has a lasting impact on individuals in our community.Our Thanksgiving was pretty mellow this
year.Erin and I had a nice dinner at
home on Thursday, and then went and met several other volunteers for a few days
of camping over the weekend.We both are
missing all of our wonderful family and friends.It’s toughest during the holiday season, but
we are lucky to have each other and a great group of friends here in Bots.We hope that everyone is well back home, and
that you all have a joyous holiday season.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

It has been over a year since we have seen any of our family and friends (we miss you all a lot!), so what better way to kick off our summer than with a visit from my parents Dan and Susy. I had been anticipating their trip for months, and finally they arrived. We had a wonderful time showing them our village and introducing them to all of our Batswana friends, neighbors, and co-workers, and touring around our beautiful adopted country. I hope you all are not sick of animal pictures, but the wildlife is so amazing here, and we were able to see a TON of animals with my parents. I thought it would be fun to let my mom Susy write a guest blog post, and give you all a slightly different perspective on being here.
Love and hugs - Jojo & Erin

It has been a few weeks since we have returned from a trip to Botswana to visit Jojo and Erin who are in the Peace Corps in Tonota. Jojo asked us during our travels if the country was what we expected; and I really have to say that I didn’t have any expectations. But, we found the trip fantastic. We loved Botswana: the people, (especially the children), the villages, the landscape, the rivers, the tours we took, the safaris and the animals. It was overwhelming to see the amount of animals, not only the amount of each kind, like the herds of elephants, cape buffalo, etc., but all the different animals we did see. My husband and I have been on a safari in South Africa, and we saw many of the animals we saw in Botswana, but we saw wild dogs (which we never did see); apparently a very difficult animal to spot, it was exciting since they were eating whatever they had just killed, and at the same time were keeping the vultures from getting to the kill. It was fascinating seeing the numbers of animals. I especially loved seeing the elephants, giraffes, baboons, buffalo, hippos and
rhinos, the lion and leopard and the crocodiles. We also saw about a dozen elephants on our SA safari, but we saw herds of them on the Chobe River, and we saw many more on our Okavango Delta cruise. We saw warthogs walking around Kasane, right through town; and when we were in Khama Rhino Sanctuary, not only did we see dozens and dozens of rhinos and baby rhinos, but when we were in the parking lot after
our game drive and picnic, a lone rhino came walking through minding his own business with many people standing around. It was so close and very exciting…even to the people working there!
We were travelling around in a car, and I found it fascinating that goats, cows and donkeys were free to wander outside of their farms and were crossing the road causing all traffic to come to a halt. Often, they moved off when cars were honking, so they are apparently quite used to the cars. In the villages, all animals are free to wander around…not only the dogs, but cows, goats, chickens, etc. Talk about free range…it is
entirely free range there.
We visited Jojo and Erin’s workplaces and were impressed with the work they are doing and have already accomplished. Erin works in the clinic and Jojo in a government building, in projects all revolving around HIV/AIDS.
Some highlights of the trip for me were seeing their village, walking around, doing laundry by hand with them, meeting their neighbor Kelly and her son. We also got together with their host family from Serowe, at the Khama Rhino park for a braai (bbq). We had only heard about them, but got to spend time with them and found them wonderful. The parents and their three kids were such fun, and you could see the admiration Jojo and Erin and the family all have for each other. They definitely bonded and now Jojo and Erin have a family away from home, in Africa.
We saw a dead hippo, upside down with its legs up in the air from our river cruise. I don’t know why that has stayed with me, but one never sees such a large animal intact and it was pretty interesting. I loved the landscape along the rivers and in the delta. I couldn’t take enough pictures…some people thinking I overdid it, but each picture has something special about it. I was fascinated with the termite hills and tried to take pictures of everyone I saw. There were so many different shapes and some connected to trees and some
standing alone. Those pictures are going to make it into a collage!And I found every village and compound interesting in their own unique ways, from the different styles of houses (huts) to the different fences they have built. Everything is made with the same materials,but in such a variety of ways.
We stayed in wonderful lodgings from Maun, into Namibia, and in Chobe (Kasane). I thought we would be in places without bathrooms and would have to go outside; but to my surprise, we stayed in beautiful places
complete with bathrooms, kitchens with all the charm of the towns and areas they were in.
The traditions of the Batswana people are so neat; and to see different tribes in different areas of the country who dressed differently, for example, was so colorful and charming. In all, I have to say how impressed I was in how happy the people seem to be. The country is led by a President; but then in each village,
there is a chief with whom the people go to for advice, permission to marry, etc. And it all works for them!
We loved our trip and hopefully will be able to take more trips to Africa, it’s an interesting place.

Cute kids, absolutely no shortage of these here

Okovango Breem fish drying in the sun

Typical village huts

Ditto

Using materials which are available

This girl was so beautiful

Pounding millet. This grain is mixed with water into a porridge and eaten every day. Millet and other grains like sourghum and maize (corn) are staples of the diet and sometimes are eaten with little else.

This mosadi mogolo (old lady) reluctantly sold Jojo this beautiful basket which she had made to sift grain.

Lazy Lazy Lazy

Ditto

Dan & Susy

Kabo

Neo

It was so cool to watch these African Hunting Dogs rip apart whatever they had just killed.